This happened perilously close to where my son used to live and work: Three Dead in Cargo Plane Crash Near Sacramento SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - An Emery Worldwide DC-8 cargo plane crashed into an auto salvage yard near Sacramento soon after takeoff late Wednesday, killing all three people aboard and sparking a huge fire, officials said. FAA Western Region spokesman Jim Whitehead said the cargo jet crashed shortly after the pilot reported a ``severe center of gravity problem,'' which refers to the way cargo is stashed in the aircraft's hold. Witnesses described seeing a fiery crash that ignited at least 100 cars and sent a huge black cloud of smoke into the nighttime sky. There were no reported injuries on the ground. ``I seen a big giant ball of fire in the sky,'' Brian Delaney told the local NBC television affiliate. ``I told my son I bet that plane went down and sure enough that's what happened.'' Officials said the plane was making a sharp left turn as it attempted to return to the airport when it crashed in the auto salvage yard near the California capital, he said. Capt. Dan Haverty, from the American River Fire Department in Rancho Cordova, Calif. a suburb of Sacramento, said the pilot reported unsettled cargo, which included transmission fluid, clothing and a small amount of detonating explosives. ``When our crews arrived there was a large fire burning and there was no chance of rescue,'' he said in a telephone interview. Authorities said Emery Flight 17 left Sacramento Mather Airport, a former U.S. air force base that has been converted for civilian use, shortly before 8 p.m. PST (11 p.m. EST) and was headed to Dayton, Ohio. Firefighting crews and other emergency personnel were on the scene, and the flames were dying down and the National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending inspectors to the scene of the fiery crash. Emery Worldwide announced last week it planned to replace its entire fleet of 28 DC-8's over the next five years. Based in Redwood City, Calif., Emery operates in 229 countries through a network of more than 500 service centers and agent locations around the world. Emery Worldwide is a subsidiary of CNF Inc. (CNF.N.), a $5.6-billion management company of global supply chain services based in Palo Alto, Calif.

Benny Quick. December 22nd 1999 (just heard about it) - pop/beat singer since early Sixties (late Fifties?). Had some major singles then. I know people who played for him. Benny hanged himself on the day he was supposed to marry his girlfriend of many years. Curtis Mayfield, in January. Genius in music, genius in soul. And soul doesn't spell the music style, but his attitude, his civil rights involvement, his political stand. Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Saturday last week. Moondog. Late 1999, in Germany.

Luved Screamin' Jay Hawkins...tres weird but really cool.

Guy around here who rents PAs out did play in a band for him. There just came a new double CD out late 1999 with a recording of a 1998 concert in Paris (label: Roadrunner).

I knew he was an expatriot living in Paris. I figured if anyone knew a connection with him it would be you! Wonder if John ever interviewed him...

Mezz Mezzrow worked in Paris, too, in the Fifties... Don't know if he stayed there, but I got two 78s from 1954 or 56 with him on it, one side features a nice drum solo.

Don't know what his real name was, but what a great jazz name he has/had. You DO have a cool record collection with some of the guys you mentioned from time to time in it...*wow*

please pray for the little 6 year old Kayla (michigan) who died as a result of a gunshot (only one bullet in the gun-thank goodness) from one of her classmates. this has got to stop! my baby girl is 6 and i really feel this deeply.

I know another little girl who just turned 6 ... You may be assured of my prayers as may this precious other little one!

*hugs*

*Big nurturing and protective H U G S* back atcha!

Girls on Way to Mardi Gras Parade Crushed by Truck NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Two toddlers on their way to a suburban Mardi Gras parade on Saturday were crushed to death by the rear wheels of an 18-wheel truck as their mother prepared to cross a highway, police reported. There were conflicting reports about whether the double stroller carrying Veronica Carney, 2, and Jacqueline Carney, 1, was still on the curb or had just started across the busy road. At least two witnesses said the girls and their mother, Elizabeth Carney, 23, were all on the sidewalk when the tractor-trailer's rear wheels jumped the curb and crushed the stroller. Police in suburban Gretna near New Orleans said the rig driver, 40-year-old Derrick Williams, had a history of speeding and passing violations and was driving with an expired license when the accident occurred. The girls' mother was hospitalized after collapsing following the accident, authorities said, adding it appeared she had stepped into the street when the accident occurred. Hundreds of parade watchers about 100 yards away were oblivious to the afternoon accident. Williams was issued several citations for safety violations and the expired license, none of which police said were directly related to the accident. Police are continuing their investigation.

oh my goodness.....those poor baby girls didn't know what hit them, thank goodness. their poor mother....

Print that out for your little munchkins and make them read it if they tend to chafe at your caution when they are at the parades! That's why I posted it. Poor babies, Indeed! And, how terrible for the parents! God needed a few more cherubs...*sniff*

Pee Wee King, co-writer of ``Tennessee Waltz,'' dies LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters) - Pee Wee King, a songwriter, singer and bandleader who wrote the ``Tennessee Waltz,'' diedTuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said. King, 86, who was born Frank Kuczynski in Milwaukee, suffered a serious heart attack late last month and died with his wife and family at his bedside, a spokeswoman for Jewish Hospital said. King began his career playing accordion with local polka bands in Milwaukee and then moved into country music, in part because he and cowboy actor and singer Gene Autry got to know each other when both performed on the same Chicago radio station. It was as a songwriter that King had his greatest successes. Besides co-writing the ``Tennessee Waltz'' with Redd Stewart, King wrote such hits as ``Slow Poke,'' ``Walk Me By the River'' and ``Napoleon's Retreat.'' Patti Page turned the ``Tennessee Waltz'' into a hit when she recorded it on the flip side of her 1947 disc featuring ''Santa Claus Boogie.'' The waltz later became the state song of Tennessee. As a performer, King was a regular on the radio program ''Mid-Day Merry Go Round'' in Knoxville in 1936, and joined the ''Golden West Cowboys'' band. He became leader of the group that helped launch the careers of crooner Eddy Arnold, honky-tonk singer Cowboy Copas and singer Ernest Tubb. King's group also became the first full-time band for the Grand Ole Opry in 1937 at a time when Opry performers were part-time and often held other jobs to make ends meet. King was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1974. He is survived by his wife, a daughter and three sons.

I saw him take his first breath in life and I saw him take his last Furman Bisher - Staff Writer Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday, April 19, 2000 Let me tell you about Roger Bisher, the athlete. It won't take long because the career was short. He was well-built for a kid. Looked like an athlete. Could run like a deer. He had a coachable attitude. So the Pop Warner coach at Chastain Park talked him into coming out for the team. His brother Jamie was already a player. Roger looked like a natural. He pitched in with moderate enthusiasm, then discovered that the coach knew all about machinery, so while the others practiced, Roger talked machinery with the coach, who enjoyed talking machinery with Roger, and football got lost. End of career. His next career led to machines and science and stuff. He had a little workshop under the house out of which came some of the strangest sounds you ever heard. Sometimes it was crackling electricity. Sometimes it was an explosion, nothing major, just the budding scientist learning by trial and error. Once, he freeze-dried a dead bird he had found and won a prize in a citywide science contest. The paper printed his name wrong, Thomas Bisher. Made no difference to him. He knew who it was. On our street, he was everybody's repairman. TV, refrigeration, air-conditioning, appliances, plumbing, anything. As they say in sports, he could do it all. Best part, there was no waiting. Knock on the door and ask if Roger could come over and fix something. Oh, once in awhile I'd have to tell them, "Soon as he finishes his homework." One of my neighbors said, "He's kind of pricey, but he does good work and you can count on him." He liked to swim, but when we used to vacation at Hilton Head, sometimes you'd look around for him and he'd be gone. You'd find him with some maintenance men or guys installing something. Sometimes he'd be down or up or inside something, just as dirty as they were. Once I asked him why he didn't get out of his workshop and play games. He said, "Daddy, you play golf for fun. This is my game." Junkyards were his playgrounds. He'd make friends with the man who ran the place and get rummaging privileges. Sometimes he'd take some kind of scrap or discard to make a trade, but that was usually a token. One of his closest friendships was made in a junkyard --- well, a scrap dealership would be more proper --- with a man named Dave Pirkle, who while Roger was still a youth, accepted him as an equal. After he and his wife developed their business, Prime Power Inc., and it grew out of a patch of woods into a good-sized complex, he didn't sit back and delegate. He was hands-on. Once, he and an associate, Rick Taylor, were working on a project at the Communicable Diseases Center and Roger spied a dumpster on the grounds. Being a natural forager, he jumped into the dumpster and began looking around when a CDC official showed up. "I'd like to meet your president," he said to Rick. "He's right here," Rick said, and at that moment, Roger, the president, stood up in the dumpster and said, "Pleased to meet you." I took him to his first Indianapolis 500, and as soon as we hit town, he caught a taxi to a manufacturing company he'd corresponded with. It wasn't long before he was in the president's office talking shop, this sophomore at Georgia Tech. It was sort of like the time when Jesus disappeared and his parents found him in the temple talking with the elders, and I hope that isn't overdrawn. I took him to his first, and only, bowl game. Georgia Tech played Texas Tech in the Sun Bowl, but the highlight of the trip was crossing into Juarez, his first time in a foreign country. He was careful not to drink the water. The subject of Roger comes up today because I have lost him. A beautiful, handsome, loving man, no finer son has any parent ever had, and I grieve. Old men like me should be going first, not one who had so much to give to the world as he. Roger Chisholm Bisher passed away Monday afternoon. I saw him take his first breath in life and I saw him take his last. He was just 44, but in my heart he shall always be that smiling child blowing up his workshop. Thanks for giving me your time. e-mail: furman@ajc.com

What's your connecton with Roger, Marci?

None, whatever. It was sent to me by John and I wanted to post it somewhere on Good Friday (when he sent it to me). This seemed to be the right place. Had you ever heard of him?

Nope. Not really.

*sigh* John, too.

John forwarded these to me: Sir John Gielgud has died of natural causes at his home in London at age 96. Gielgud -- who made his name as a Shakespearean stage actor -- made his debut in Hamlet at age 17. He would later be known for defining the role. He went on to appear in 54 theatrical films, ranging from Julius Caesar to his Oscar-winning performance in Arthur. He was the last in a generation of classic British actors which included Sir Ralph Richardson, Sir Laurence Olivier and Dame Peggy Ashcroft. The West End's Globe Theater was renamed in his honor 10 years ago. He worked as recently as spring, appearing in the BBC's Merlin miniseries. John's note: Although Americans know Sir John best from his Oscar winning turn as the gentleman's gentleman, Hobson in Arthur" (1981). Although he had many memorable roles, his best film role was almost assuredly as Cassius in the 1953 production of Julius Caesar, in which he shone throughout despite having to share scenes with Marlon Brando (Antony) James Mason (Brutus), Edmond O'Brien (Casca) and the forgotten but fabulous Louis Calhern (Caesar). He did a lot of voice only work later in life, taking narration jobs as both King Arthur ("Dragonheart," 1996) and Merlin ("Quest for Camelot," 1998), and was awesome as Guinevere's adviser Oswald in "First Knight" (1995) and Pope Paul IV in "Elizabeth" (1998). His movie career spanned back to the days of silent films, his first credited role was as Daniel in 1924's "Who Is the Man." As fine of a film actor as he was, he was an even better stage actor, classically trained in the Royal Shakespeare Company. His body of work is as impressive as any actor's this side of the ancient Greek stage and he will be greatly missed. England's queen of romance novels has died at age 98. Barbara Cartland's trademark books matched uninitiated virgin women with handsome, rich worldly men.

Johnnie Taylor Dead At 62 (6/1/00, 6 p.m. ET) - Veteran soul singer Johnnie Taylor has died at the age of 62. On Wednesday (May 31), Taylor seemingly suffered a heart attack at his home in Duncanville, Texas, just outside Dallas, and died at approximately 10 p.m. that night at the Charleton Methodist Medical Center in Dallas. No immediate information was available as to burial plans. Born May 5, 1938, Taylor was at one time a member of the Soul Stirrers, the gospel group that counts among its alumni Sam Cooke. His first charted single was "Baby, We've Got Love" (written by Cooke), which peaked at Number 98 in Billboard in late 1963. It was Taylor's third single, "Who's Making Love," that catapulted him to fame. "Who's Making Love" spent 14 weeks on the Hot 100 chart in late 1968 and early 1969, peaking at Number Five and going gold. Taylor enjoyed moderate success with a string of singles after that, although it would be some time before he cracked the top 10 again. That happened in 1976, when "Disco Lady" was released. The single spent 19 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, and reached Number One. Besides being a huge hit, "Disco Lady" was the first single that was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for sales of 1 million copies. After the heights that Taylor achieved with "Disco Lady," his career returned to the moderate levels of success that he had been enjoying for years. While he never had another chart-topper, Taylor continued to perform year-round, which was the thing he enjoyed doing the most. Last year, LAUNCH asked Taylor if it bothered him to be so closely associated with his two biggest hits, when he had so many other songs in his catalogue. He told us it's exactly the opposite. "No, because you gotta be related to something," he said. "Some people sing a long time, don't be related to anything, you know what I'm saying? So those are masterpieces, and I'm not, no, I'm not, I have no, nothing about that - except have a lot of humbleness and appreciation." -- Bruce Simon, New York

http://www.personal.cet.ac.il/yonin/jt.htm

I wish more artists of the musical variety had websites of this magintude. What a great collection of his output. Amazing!

Vincent Canby, NY Times film and theater critic, 76, of cancer. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/16/national/16CANB.html Gus Hall, American Communist Party leader, 90, of complications from diabetes.

I just heard this on NPR on the way in to Austin this morning. The debates are being reconsidered because of it. Gov. Mel Carnahan of Missouri, his son, and his chief advisor, in a plane crash. His Republican opponent has stopped campaigning.

Steve Allen. Musician, songwriter, writer, and inventor of late night tv talk shows. The first host of the Tonight Show. Survived by Jayne Meadows and his kids. He died in his sleep after helpingndkids carve a pumpkin.

He was one of the great ones of our time.

Poet Gwendolyn Brooks, age 83. A Sunset of the City Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love. My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls, Are gone from the house. My husband and lovers are pleasant or somewhat polite And night is night. It is a real chill out, The genuine thing. I am not deceived, I do not think it is still summer Because sun stays and birds continue to sing. It is summer-gone that I see, it is summer-gone. The sweet flowers indrying and dying down, The grasses forgetting their blaze and consenting to brown. It is a real chill out. The fall crisp comes I am aware there is winter to heed. There is no warm house That is fitted with my need. I am cold in this cold house this house Whose washed echoes are tremulous down lost halls. I am a woman, and dusty, standing among new affairs. I am a woman who hurries through her prayers. Tin intimations of a quiet core to be my Desert and my dear relief Come: there shall be such islanding from grief, And small communion with the master shore. Twang they. And I incline this ear to tin, Consult a dual dilemma. Whether to dry In humming pallor or to leap and die. A great poet spirit has died.

A good starting place to learn about Gwendolyn Brooks: http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=02B3A000 Brooks, Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks, Gwendolyn Elizabeth (1917- ), American poet, the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize. Born in Topeka, Kansas, Brooks graduated from Wilson Junior College in 1936. Her first book of poems, A Street in Bronzeville (1945), was praised by critics as a clear and moving evocation of life in an urban black neighborhood. For Annie Allen (1949), Brooks was awarded the 1950 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Her other works include the novel Maud Martha (1953); the children's book Bronzeville Boys and Girls (1956); and the volumes of poetry Selected Poems (1963), In the Mecca (1968), Riot (1969), Family Pictures (1970), Aloneness (1971), To Disembark (1981), The Near-Johannesburg Boy (1987), BLACKS (1987), Gottschalk and the Grande Tarantelle (1989), and Children Coming Home (1992). Her autobiographical work Report from Part One appeared in 1972. Brooks is noted for her adaptation of traditional forms of poetry and for her use of short verse lines and casual rhymes. Her work has always depicted black struggles, but after 1968 she became more active and outspoken in attacking racial discrimination. She also worked extensively to distribute black poetry. Brooks was named poet laureate for the state of Illinois in 1968, succeeding Carl Sandburg. In 1985 she was appointed poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, and in 1988 she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Her many awards include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award (1946) and a National Endowment for the Arts Senior Fellowship for Literature (1989),a lifetime achievement award. In 1990 Brooks became the first American to receive the Society for Literature Award from the University of Thessaloniki in Athens, Greece. She received the National Book Foundation's medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 1994.

i used one of her pieces in a poetry interpretation contest in high school.

poem For Gregory Corso By Robert Creeley Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2001, at 4:00 p.m. PT I'll miss you, who did better than I did at keeping the faith of poets, staying true. It's as if you couldn't do otherwise, had always an appetite waiting to lead. You kept to the high road of canny vision, let the rest of us find our own provision. Ruthless, friends felt, you might take everything. Nothing was safe from you. You did what you wanted. Yet, safe in your words, your poems, their humor could hold me. The wit, the articulate gathering rhythms, all made a common sense of the archaic wonders. You pulled from nowhere the kingly chair. You sat alone there.

Michel Navratil, 92. The last male survivor of the Titanic.

he was 3 years old when the ship went down.

I wonder how many women survivors are still alive?

Dan Del Santo, famed Austin radio personality who had been on the lam since 1992, died recently. Del Santo's voice and personality is probably familiar to anyone who spent time in Austin in the lates 80s or early 90s. He used to do the world-beat music show on KUT and had been a fixture on the local music scene since the mid 70s. In '92 he was busted for pot, jumped bail, and disappeared. Here is his obit from today's statesman: Dan Del Santo, 1951-2001 From offbeat to world beat, Del Santo knew music By Michael Corcoran American-Statesman Staff Wednesday, October 17, 2001 Austin world music guru Dan Del Santo's nine years as a fugitive has ended in a small town outside Oaxaca in southern Mexico, where he was found dead. John Del Santo of San Diego said the U.S. Consulate in Mexico City notified him Friday that his brother had died the day before of internal bleeding. "His girlfriend Gloria said he'd had terrible back pain after a couple of car accidents and used painkillers, which eventually caused the bleeding," the musician's older brother said. The bandleader, who wore colorful traditional African garb and coined the term "world beat" while leading an Afro-Cuban band in the 1980s, was 50. Del Santo disappeared from the Austin music scene in 1992 after being charged in Virginia with conspiring to distribute marijuana. But while he may have been avoiding the law, he was hardly on the run, ex-wife Anne Sherwood said. "He lived outside of Oaxaca the whole nine years," said the mother of his two children. "He played guitar in clubs under his own name." "Austin City Limits" producer Terry Lickona, who moved with Del Santo from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to Austin in 1974, said he had occasionally heard reports from people who said they saw Del Santo playing at an Italian restaurant in Oaxaca. "It was never a secret that he was in Mexico," Lickona said. Jim Carney, who heads the U.S. marshal's international investigation office in Washington, said such easy evasion is not uncommon considering the workload of Mexican police. "We have no authority there, but we'll press the Mexican authorities to go after the violent offenders," Carney said. "There are as many as 4,000 American fugitives in Mexico, and in the big scheme of things (Del Santo) must not have been a top priority." Deputy U.S. Marshal Kevin Connolly, whose office in Richmond, Va., handled the case, said his marshals knew where to find Del Santo. "We notified the Mexican authorities of his whereabouts about two years ago," he said. After Del Santo was arrested Aug. 17, 1992, and released on his own recognizance, he sent a letter to the manager of Austin public radio station KUT resigning from his popular world music radio show "due to an unseen family tragedy that will take me away from Austin for an indefinite period of time." When he didn't show up for his arraignment in Norfolk, Va., the next month to face charges of attempting to arrange the sale of more than a ton of marijuana to two Virginia men, Del Santo was deemed a fugitive. "We couldn't figure out why he didn't just go to trial," Sherwood said. "It didn't seem to be a strong case against him." But Lickona said Del Santo had become increasingly paranoid in the year or so before his arrest. "After his divorce, he'd sleep on the floor in his office and rarely go outside. He didn't trust anyone." Most of all, though, Del Santo was terrified of the prospect of prison, Lickona said. "He thought he was looking at 25 years." Lickona said he saw a completely different person in 1992 than the one he met in the early '70s, when Lickona was a disc jockey and Del Santo played in a progressive bluegrass band. "We were like brothers," Lickona said. "He was my best friend for 15 years, but then things started getting a little weird." Enchanted by the Texas "outlaw country" scene, Lickona and Del Santo came down from New York to the 1974 Willie Nelson Fourth of July Picnic and fell in love with Austin. "Dan thought his music would fit right in, but when he saw that everyone else was doing the same progressive country style, he decided to do something new," Lickona said. Del Santo would call his new outfit the Professors of Pleasure. "Before he went 'world beat,' Dan's music was offbeat," said former musical collaborator Mike Mordecai. "It was this jazzy, bluesy, stream of consciousness stuff that just blew me away," Mordecai said. "I told Dan that his deep voice called for a trombone player in the band, and a few days later he asked me to join." By the mid-'80s, Del Santo had become engrossed in African music and altered his band accordingly. He also started a Friday night world music tradition at KUT that ended with the cancellation of the 8-to-11 p.m. program just a month ago. Del Santo didn't hide his affinity for marijuana, which he often packaged in Mason jars. "It was no secret that Dan sold the strongest pot in town," said Mordecai, noting that the rotund bandleader once posed in his marijuana field for an album cover. "This is a sad ending to a bittersweet story with a twist about a real talented guy," Lickona said. Del Santo's next of kin, 18-year-old daughter Dominique Del Santo, gave permission Monday for her father to be cremated. John Del Santo said plans are to scatter his ashes in the Mexican village he called home for the past nine years. Deputy Marshal Connolly said the Del Santo case would be considered open until his office received a copy of the death certificate.

Bands, fans loved Continental Club's Shoeshine Charley By Michael Corcoran American-Statesman Staff Thursday, November 15, 2001 "Shoeshine" Charley Miller often butchered the names of bands he introduced at the Continental Club. "How 'bout that Hondo Escalator?" he'd announce after a set by Alejandro Escovedo. At first the flubs were genuine, but Miller started doing them on purpose, to the delight of patrons. Miller, a beloved fixture at the South Austin club and a colorful presence in the city's music scene, died Wednesday of respiratory failure at the Monte Siesta nursing home. He was 64. Owner Steve Wertheimer turned Miller's shoeshine stand into a shrine at the news of the death. "He left his personal stamp on the club, that's for sure," Wertheimer said. Miller was the third member of the Continental Club family to die recently. Fiddler Champ Hood died Nov. 3, and percussionist John "Mambo" Treanor died Aug. 20. Miller had been at the Continental for 10 years but had scarcely been seen in recent months because of failing health. He returned to the club Sept. 12 for a tribute concert that raised more than $3,000 to help pay his nursing home expenses. Miller had such a great time that night and stayed so late that he was locked out of the nursing home. He was often cantankerous, especially when clubgoers leaned against his stand or sat in his chair to watch the bands, but those who steered clear of his wrath instantly took a shine to the nattily attired character who looked like he'd stepped out of a 1950s juke joint. "Some people would come just to see Charley," Wertheimer said. "It didn't matter who was playing." Those who knew him best describe a soft core to his gruff exterior. "When the Grey Ghost played the club for the last time, the Ghost was so sick, so weak, that Charley just cried like a baby," said Glover Gill, whose former band 8 1/2 Souvenirs featured Miller in its "Happy Feet" video. Miller also made cameo appearances in "Lone Star" and "The Newton Boys." Peppering his down-home dialect with profanities, Miller didn't hesitate to give his opinion of bands he didn't like, especially loud ones. But he was an uncle figure to a host of Austin acts, including Junior Brown, who would often take Miller on tour with him to lead the guitarist to the stage. "With me as a bodyguard, ain't no (expletive) gonna mess with Junior," the 130-pound Miller would boast. "Charley was a special friend," Brown said in a written statement. "He was unique because he wasn't afraid to completely open up his heart to people." Born in Smithville, Miller began shining shoes at age 10 in a "whites only" barbershop. As a young adult, he booked music at the legendary East Austin blues club Charlie's Playhouse. From 1959 to 1976, Miller ran the after-hours juke joint Ernie's Chicken Shack on Webberville Road and worked with Blues Boy Hubbard and other blues acts. It was while shining shoes at Antone's in the late 1980s that Miller met Wertheimer. "I'd tell him, `Man, you ought to shine shoes at my club,' " Wertheimer recalled, "but he'd always turn me down." Then one day in 1991, out of the blue, Miller pulled up in a pickup with his shoeshine stand in the back. "All right, where do you want me to set up?" Miller said to Wertheimer. It wasn't long before Miller's elevated shoeshine chair became his throne and the club his kingdom. One night, a band was taking a set break deemed too long by Miller, so he went backstage and ordered the players to cut the chitchat and get onstage. Watching the band dutifully follow the orders, Wertheimer made Miller stage manager. "It was his club, too, as far as he was concerned," Wertheimer said. When a second Continental Club opened in Houston last year, Miller insisted on moving there for a few months to make sure the club was being run right. "Any time a touring band would come through, the first thing they'd ask is, `Where's Charley?' " Wertheimer said. "Everybody remembered him. He was a true character, one of a kind." Wertheimer plans to commission a bust of Shoeshine Charley to put near his cherished stand. Miller is survived by brothers William and Carl Miller of Austin and sister Eleanor Keys of Phoenix. Final arrangements for the funeral, expected to be Monday at King-Tears Mortuary, are pending. New York Times November 16, 2001 Ex-Rep. Bob Eckhardt, 88, Liberal Democrat of Texas, Dies By DAVID STOUT WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 � Bob Eckhardt, who survived for 14 years in Congress as a liberal Democrat from Houston despite a constituency that was considerably to his right politically, died on Tuesday in Austin, Tex., his hometown. He was 88. His family said Mr. Eckhardt had suffered a series of strokes. Mr. Eckhardt represented Texas's Eighth Congressional District from 1967 until 1981, losing his seat in the 1980 Republican landslide led by Ronald Reagan. Mr. Eckhardt was a man of deceiving appearance. With his flowing mane, loud bow ties, Panama hats and three-piece linen suits, he looked like an old-style Southern congressman � at least if one were to go by stereotypes, which Mr. Eckhardt spent much of his career defying. He supported busing to achieve school desegregation and supported federal money for abortions. He opposed a constitutional amendment to allow organized prayers in public schools. Perhaps most importantly, considering the economics of his district, he repeatedly sponsored or backed legislation that oil and gas interests disliked. His influence in the energy area was considerable, since he served for a time as chairman of an oversight panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Mr. Eckhardt successfully fought deregulation of natural gas prices in the late 1970's. In 1975, he wrote legislation to keep price controls on oil. He also supported antipollution bills that the petroleum and chemical interests in his district found too restrictive. Mr. Eckhardt, who once termed himself as "something of a populist," was decidedly liberal on civil rights and labor issues. He was an early critic of United States involvement in Vietnam and in 1975 became the first Southerner to be elected chairman of the Democratic Study Group, an organization of House liberals. Yet he was sometimes bored by the speechmaking that precedes lawmaking. To alleviate the tedium, Mr. Eckhardt drew cartoons, something he had taken up in grade school and refined as editor and chief cartoonist for a humor magazine at the University of Texas. During House proceedings, he drew on note pads, scrap paper or pages of the Congressional Record "to puncture the shield of sham," as he once put it. President Richard M. Nixon's ski-jump nose (not to mention his politics) made him a natural and frequent target. Robert Christian Eckhardt was born on July 16, 1913. He graduated from the University of Texas and its School of Law, served in the Army Air Corps from 1940 to 1944 and practiced labor law before being elected to the Texas Legislature in 1958. Various explanations were offered for Mr. Eckhardt's survival as a liberal, first in the Texas Legislature and then in Congress. For one thing, his Texas roots ran deep. His ancestors on both his father's and mother's sides arrived from Germany in the first half of the 19th century. A great-grandfather fought at the Battle of San Jacinto in the Texas Revolution. A great-uncle married into the King family, which controlled the vast King Ranch. And Mr. Eckhardt's second cousin Representative Richard M. Kleberg of Texas gave the young Lyndon B. Johnson his first job in Washington. Then, too, Mr. Eckhardt could be an entertaining speaker, whether relying on drawled puns or quotes from Shakespeare. Mr. Eckhardt, who once wrote a book on the Constitution with a Yale law professor, Charles L. Black Jr., was respected for his intellect. In the campaigns of 1976 and 1978, oil and gas interests spent heavily in trying to oust Mr. Eckhardt. They succeeded in 1980 when he lost by 4,000 votes to a young lawyer who had never held office, Jack Fields, who served until 1997. Mr. Eckhardt said afterward that he had no regrets. "I believed Edmund Burke's idea that a legislator should not simply be a reflection of public opinion," he said. Mr. Eckhardt's three marriages ended in divorce. He is survived by three daughters, Sarah, of Austin, Rosalind, of Durango, Colo., and Orissa Arend of New Orleans; two brothers, Norman, of Dallas, and Joseph, of Nyack, N.Y., and six grandchildren.

Now there are two. George Harrison My Sweet Lord http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/obituaries/george_harrison/default.stm http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011130/en/obit_harrison.html OS ANGELES (AP) - George Harrison, the Beatles' quiet lead guitarist and spiritual explorer who added both rock 'n' roll flash and a touch of the mystic to the band's timeless magic, has died. He was 58. Harrison died at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at a friend's Los Angeles home following a battle with cancer, longtime friend Gavin De Becker told The Associated Press late Thursday. Harrison's wife, Olivia Harrison, and son Dhani, 24, were with him. ``He left this world as he lived in it, conscious of God, fearless of death, and at peace, surrounded by family and friends,'' the Harrison family said in a statement. ``He often said, `Everything else can wait but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another.''' With Harrison's death, there remain two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. John Lennon was shot to death by a deranged fan in 1980. ``I am devastated and very, very sad,'' McCartney told reporters outside his London home Friday. ``He was a lovely guy and a very brave man and had a wonderful sense of humor. He is really just my baby brother.''

Another excerpt from the above AP story: After the Beatles broke up in 1970, Harrison had sporadic success. He organized the concert for Bangladesh in New York, produced films that included Monty Python's ``Life of Brian,'' and teamed with old friends, including Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison, as ``The Traveling Wilburys.'' Harrison was born Feb. 25, 1943, in Liverpool, one of four children of Harold and Louise Harrison. His father, a former ship's steward, became a bus conductor soon after his marriage. Harrison was 13 when he bought his first guitar and befriended Paul McCartney

Catya Sassoon, 33. According to MSNBC, she died in her sleep after returning from a New Year's Party feeling woozy.

Wendy's founder Dave Thomas *frown*

Mati Klarwein http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Strasse/8599/mati2.html

Abdul Mati Klarwein's surrealistic renderings first came to the notice of the world when Carlos Santana personally chose the cover for the LP "Abraxas", but Mati's art is also associated with Miles Davis album covers in the 1970s. His works are Dali-esque and occasionally "provocative".

Sounds fascninating but did not recognize the name. I'll go edify myself.

I was surprised that John Thaw passed. I loved him as Morse.

LONDON, March 23 (Xinhuanet) -- England cricketer Ben Hollioake has been killed in a car crash in Australia, the BBC said here on Saturday. The 24-year-old died instantly in the accident involving his black Porsche 924, which came off the road in the early hours of Saturday morning (1600 Friday GMT) in Perth, Western Australia. Hollioake lost control of the Porsche as it came off a ramp on an expressway in the south of the city and hit a pylon. A 22-year-old female passenger is in a "serious but stable condition" in a Perth hospital after suffering serious head and chest injuries. Police have begun an investigation into the accident, in which no other car was involved. Relatives - including Hollioake's sister Eboni - who were travelling in a vehicle behind the Porsche, were first on the scene after witnessing the crash, police said. Constable Raphael Perez of the police operations center in Perth said that Hollioake "failed to negotiate a bend and hit a pylon which rolled the vehicle". He added that Hollioake's parents, who live near Melbourne, are being given counselling and treatment for shock. England's cricket side, currently playing New Zealand in the second Test in Wellington, were made aware of Hollioake's death at the lunch interval. They requested that the England flag be lowered to half-mast during the lunch break and black armbands were worn by both teams' batsmen. The 24-year-old Surrey all-rounder was born in Australia but moved to Britain from Perth in 1984. Hollioake played two Tests for England - against Australia in 1997 and Sri Lanka in 1998. Hollioake is the second Surrey player to die in a car crash in recent years, following Graham Kersey's similar accident near Brisbane in December 1996. Enditem

Milton Burl and Dudley Moore today....

- Britain's Queen Mother dies at 101. Watch CNN or log on to http://CNN.com

and Billy somebody (sorry, can't remember the last name) died Thurs. He was famous for all sorts of movies including Some Like It Hot and he was responsible for pairing the odd couple-walter mattheau and jack lemmon

Billy Wilder !!! Indeed, he directed and produced many famous films.

thanks for that marcia, i didn't mean any disrespect in my post (by forgetting his last name)!

The Queen Mother. Queen Elizabeth.

Best thing I could find on the web: http://www.queenmother-100years.com/regmain.htm

robert urich (sp?)

Correct spelling. from the official roberturich.com website. ROBERT URICH Biography For the past twenty-five years, Robert Urich has been one of the most popular and prolific actors on television. His �TVQ�, an index of recognition and likeability, is not surprisingly one of the highest in television, ranking in the top five. Urich has starred in over fifteen weekly television series� including the popular and long-running series� Spenser: For Hire and Vega$, which consistently earned top 20 ratings. He has also starred in the series� S.W.A.T., Gavilan, Soap, Tabitha, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, American Dreamer, Crossroads, Lonesome Dove, It Had to be You, The Lazarus Man, Vital Signs, PBS�s Boatworks, UPN�s The Love Boat: The Next Wave and the WB�s animated drama Invasion America, and the current EMERIL on NBC. Upon concluding National Geographic�s On Assignment series, Urich received the 1992 Cable Ace Award for Informational Host of National Geographic�s Explorer, which he hosted for three years. He also received a 1992 Emmy Award for his narration of the Explorer film U-Boats: Terror on Our Shores. In addition to his success in weekly television series�, Urich has also worked extensively in movies for television, having received both critical and popular acclaim for The Defiant Ones, Young Again, The Comeback, Lady Be Good, Stranger At My Door, And Then She Was Gone, Survive the Savage Sea, Final Descent, and Miracle on the 17th Green, in which he was executive producer. Urich most recently completed two movies for CBS Television, For the Love of Olivia with Lou Gossett Jr. and Aftermath with Meredith Baxter. Urich has also starred in numerous mini-series� including Princess Daisy, Mistral�s Daughter, the CBS dramatic telefilm To Save the Children, the highly-rated Danielle Steele�s Perfect Stranger, two Spenser: For Hire movies for Lifetime and ABC, Tailhook, the Hallmark Hall of Fame feature Captain Courageous, The Angel of Pennsylvania Avenue for the Family Channel, CBS�s Family Descent, and Final Run. Among Urich�s feature film credits are starring roles in Turk 182! With Timothy Hutton, Endangered Species with JoBeth Williams, Ice Pirates with Anjelica Huston, Jock of the Bushveld, and most recently, Cloverbend. Urich has also performed on stage in productions that include The Hasty Heart in which he teamed with his wife, Heather Menzies, at the Kennedy Center for the Arts. He also completed a starring role as Billy Flynn in the touring company of Chicago, ending his successful run on Broadway. A small town high school football hero of Toronto, Ohio, Urich earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Radio and Television Communications at Florida Sate University while on a four-year football scholarship. While still a student, Urich hosted his own weekly television talk show. He subsequently earned an MA in Broadcast Research and Management from Michigan State University. Urich made his stage debut by talking his way into a community theater production of Lovers and Other Strangers. He spent the next 18 months performing at Chicago�s Ivanhoe Theater and the Arlington Park and Pheasant Run Theaters, during which time he caught the attention of a talent agent and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a professional career. He landed his first series starring role in Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice based on the controversial movie of the same title. Shortly thereafter, he made his feature film debut in Clint Eastwood�s second outing as Dirty Harry Callahan, Magnum Force � five lines before being crushed under a motorcycle by Eastwood�s speeding car! Urich began to work steadily after Magnum Force with the police series S.W.A.T. and then his own starring roles in Vega$ and Gavilan. He has worked consistently ever since. In 1996, following the final production of the first season of The Lazarus Man, Robert was diagnosed with Synovial Cell Sarcoma, which is a rare soft tissue cancer. He underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation for eight months. During treatment, he spoke very publicly about his cancer. Robert has been awarded many honors including the Gilda Radner Courage Award from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Urich continues to do a speaking tour throughout the United States, and he has publicly spoken more than 45 times to over 200,000 people across the country. The audiences range from Cancer Support Groups to Fortune 500 Companies. He has been featured on Primetime Live interviewed by Dianne Sawyer, and has appeared Extra, Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America and Larry King Live. He had been a frequent guest on The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, The Conan O�Brien Show, Live with Regis, and The View. He is survived by his wife, Heather, and three children, Ryan, Emily, and Allison.

he was good looking too! Linda Lovelace, today (most famous for Deep Throat)

left eye lopez from TLC in a car crash in hondurus....(yesterday)

is THAT who it was. Why Left Eye? *sigh* I am so out-of-it...

Jack Buck did the Cardinals games for about 30 years, I think I heard on NPR. What a great trio, Jack Buck, Harry Carey and Joe Garagiola. These three did the Cardinals games on KMOX that I listened to as a child growing up in St. Louis.

Ann Landers Psychology Today magazine once praised the Ann Landers column for influencing how many people resolved their problems. Ms. Lederer was a strong believer in counseling and often sought advice from prominent experts when a reader's problem proved too complicated. Ms. Lederer answered hundreds of letters a day from the office in her high-rise apartment in Chicago, working on a typewriter because she did not like computers. Despite her illness, Ms. Lederer worked right up until her death. Sunday's edition of the Chicago Tribune carries her latest column.

Agony aunt Ann Landers dies of bone disease June 23 2002 at 11:12AM By Jane Light Chicago - Ann Landers, who was reputedly the most widely read columnist in the world and famously urged her readers to "wake up and smell the coffee", died on Saturday at the age of 83, the Chicago Tribune reported. The Tribune, which had been her home base since 1987, said she died in her Chicago home of multiple myeloma - a malignant tumour of the bone marrow. Her real name was Esther "Eppie" Pauline Friedman Lederer, and according to the Tribune her column was for 40 years the world's best read and most widely syndicated - carried by 1 200 newspapers http://www.itechnology.co.za/index.php?click_id=5&art_id=qw1024822620422B211&set_id=9

Rosemary Clooney. and Arthur Spud Melin. Co-Invented the hula hoop. Melin was a co-inventor of the Hula Hoop, which ultimately became the lone job skill required of the nation's Hooters girls. Melin, however, has failed to capitalize on the success of Hooters, and was even denied when he attempted to legally change the spelling of his last name from "Melin" to "Melon." Children around the world have always played with hoops, by rolling and throwing them or twirling them around the waist and limbs. For adults, hoop twirling has at times been recommended as a weight-loss measure (ancient Greece) and, ironically, denounced as a source of sprains, pains and even heart attacks (14th-century England). These hoops were once made of vines or other plants, wood, or metal. The conversion of the toy hoop into 20th-century Americana came thanks to Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin, founders of the Wham-O Company. In 1957, an Australian visiting California told them offhand that in his home country, children twirled bamboo hoops around their waists in gym class. Knerr and Melin saw how popular such a toy would be; and soon they were winning rave reviews from schoolkids for the hollow plastic prototype they had created. The next year, the hula hoop, whose name came from the Hawaiian dance its users seemed to imitate, was marketed nationwide. Americans kids and adults alike were hooked: Wham-O sold 25 million hula hoops in two months. Almost 100 million international orders followed. Wham-O could hardly patent an ancient item, but did reinvent, manufacture and market the hula hoop for the modern world---for example, by using Marlex, a lightweight but durable plastic then recently invented by Phillips Petroleum. By the end of 1958, after $45 million in profits, the craze was dying down. But Richard Knerr was ready with another bombshell: that year he had discovered the "Frisbie." http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/inventorsI-Q/hulahoop.html

Ted Williams. A real American hero. He batted .400 in a season and fought in two world wars. But his death has brought controversy and jokes on Jay Leno. The Splendid Shiver? Will Ted Williams hit over .400 in the year 2150? Don't count on it By Shankar Vedantam THE WASHINGTON POST Tuesday, July 9, 2002 A few hours after he died, the body of Ted Williams was removed from a Florida funeral home and taken to Arizona, where family members said his son had arranged for the 83-year-old baseball Hall of Famer to be drained of blood, filled with a freezing solution and floated inside a container filled with super-cold liquid nitrogen. Williams' death and a quarrel that has broken out among his children over the disposal of his body have sparked a macabre collision between technology and an old-fashioned family feud, raising ethical, scientific and legal questions. Williams' will might resolve whether his body will be thawed and cremated or will remain frozen. The executor of his estate is expected to file the will today or Wednesday in Florida. Williams, who played 19 seasons for the Boston Red Sox and missed three full seasons and most of two others because of military service, might be the biggest celebrity to be "cryo-preserved." The Web site of the company that family members say has his body -- Alcor Life Extension Foundation of Scottsdale, Ariz. (www.alcor.org) -- indicates 49 people have been preserved in its frozen crypts. Nationwide, about twice that number have been cryo-preserved, and a thousand living people have signed up for the process at companies charging $28,000 to $120,000, which is Alcor's top price. While the exact location and condition of Williams' body could not be confirmed by family members, this much is certain: There is a growing industry called cryonics whose leaders say that frozen corpses could be thawed out one day and, with the help of technologies as yet unknown, revived from death, healed of afflictions and restored to youthful grace. No human has been frozen so cold and thawed alive. There is nothing in current science to suggest this will be possible. "It's a bamboozle," said Herman Feifel, an emeritus professor of psychiatry and an expert on aging at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "They're milking the public. Hope never dies, I suppose. It's a bunch of baloney -- this is wishful thinking and will never occur." Williams, who 61 years ago was the last major-league baseball player to bat .400 in a season, died Friday at an Inverness, Fla., hospital. He had been in failing health for several years from strokes and heart disease. It is unclear whether the freezing procedure was something Williams had requested. His eldest daughter, Barbara Joyce Williams Ferrell, brought the procedure to light when she accused her half-brother, John Henry, of moving the corpse to Arizona to have it frozen. Ferrell, who is Williams' daughter from his first marriage, said her father wanted to be cremated and have his ashes scattered over the Florida Keys. She contends that John Henry and Claudia, children from Williams' third marriage, are behind the Alcor move. "My dad's in a metal tube, on his head, so frozen that if I touched him it would crack him because of the warmth from my fingertips," Ferrell told a Boston television station. "It makes me so sick." Eric Abel, a Williams family lawyer, told The Boston Globe that all preparations are in accordance with Williams' wishes. A spokesman for Abel said he was not accepting calls from the media Monday, and attempts to reach John Henry Williams were not successful. John Henry, whose parents divorced when he was 4, moved to Florida in 1991 to take over his father's business interests. He increasingly limited access to his father, drawing criticism from Williams' former teammates and friends. "It hurts the whole image of everyone's thoughts about Ted when he was alive," said Haywood Sullivan, former owner and general manager of the Red Sox as well as a teammate of Williams, who was known as the "Splendid Splinter." "He was flamboyant, he was controversial, yet down deep he was a good person. That's what hurts so much: to see all this right now. It's tainting the whole situation." While Alcor did not return calls seeking comment Monday, the president of the next-largest company, the Cryonics Institute, near Detroit, said the cryonics technique was growing in popularity. Robert Ettinger said his company had frozen 41 corpses. He said he has also signed up more than 400 living people who have contracted with the company, mostly by making it the beneficiary of life insurance policies. Ettinger said the company asked that corpses be packed in ice immediately after death and taken to the facility or a morgue that was equipped for the procedure. Blood is drained from the body and replaced with a liquid containing glycerine. Simultaneously the body is cooled, either with cold air, ice or crushed dry ice. The body is then floated in a sleeping bag and immersed in liquid nitrogen, for as many years or decades as are necessary to develop techniques to revive the person. Ettinger said science would have to address three problems to make the technique work. Of these, he said, the easiest would be to revive the dead. More difficult would be finding cures for whatever killed the person, and most difficult would be finding ways to reverse damage caused by the freezing operation. "Dying is not something separate from trauma or disease -- it is simply the cessation of vital processes," he said. "For example, if something like a nematode -- a little worm -- is frozen and then thawed, it was dead when it was frozen and when you thawed it, it was alive again. It changed from dead to alive when it warmed up -- if someone is dead because his heart stopped, and if you put in a new heart, he will automatically be alive again." Not so, say most scientists. While human tissues have been frozen and thawed, and while the process is used routinely for preserving embryos, sperm and blood, freezing and thawing a body involves preserving not just the organs and tissues but the connections among them, the system of interconnections that makes life possible. WILLIAMS: Family feuds over freezing his body

On Feb. 19, 1953, flying low on a bombing run far above the 38th parallel, Williams' F-9 Panther was hit by small arms fire and started leaking hydraulic fluid. With his plane shaking badly (he didn't know it was also on fire), his control panel lit up with warning lights, and his radio dead, Williams followed a fellow pilot back to base, flying without hydraulics and wrestling his stick all the way. Approaching the landing field, an on-board explosion blew off one of the wheel doors and Williams was forced to land his crippled jet at 225 miles-an-hour and on one wheel. When the F-9 finally came to a stop at the end of the runway after skidding over 2,000 feet, Williams walked away from the burning wreck as firemen hosed it down with foam. Fortunate but enraged, he reacted to nearly auguring in as if he had just popped out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth -- he yanked off his helmet and slammed it to the ground. "Ted Williams was what John Wayne would have liked us to think he was," said sportswriter Robert Lipsyte. "Williams was so big, and handsome, and laconic, and direct, and unafraid in that uniquely American cowboy way. To me he epitomized the sense of the athlete as gunslinger." more stories like this at http://espn.go.com/classic/obit/williams_ted_obit.html

25-year old Gnutella pioneer Gene Kan http://news.com.com/2100-1023-942180.html?tag=cd_mh Lore Noto, 79, Monday after a lengthy battle with cancer. "The former actor and artists' agent saw the possibilities in a small one-act show written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt when it was first produced in 1959 at Barnard College in New York. He commissioned the authors to expand the musical, which eventually opened at the tiny Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village on May 3, 1960, to mixed reviews and no advance sale. " The show? "The Fantasticks", the world's longest-running musical, which closed in January of this year. http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/News/07/09/obit.noto.ap/index.html This is from the Sound Portraits mailing list: Sound Portraits has suffered another devastating loss. June Marie Jones, LeAlan Jones's grandmother and a matriarch of the Jones -- and Sound Portraits -- families, passed away yesterday at the age of 72. She died suddenly of a heart attack in her life-long home on Chicago's South Side, surrounded by family. Nearly a decade ago, June's blesing of her thirteen-year-old grandson's participation in Ghetto Life 101 made that project -- and all of the work that grew out of it -- possible. Believing that the stories of young people growing up in this country's ghettos needed to be heard, she took the courageous step of sharing her family's story with the nation and the world. June was a spectacular woman who lived an astonishingly rich life. In the last six weeks alone, she saw her grandson LeAlan graduate from college, her granddaughter Jeri graduate from high school, and her life celebrated in the movie version of Ghetto Life 101, which premiered in Chicago. June's nurturing spirit, courage, unflappable will, faith in God, and fierce dedication to her family were an inspiration to anyone lucky enough be in her presence. Our condolences and love go out to the entire Jones family: her husband Gus and her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. You can hear June singing "One Day at a Time" from the Ghetto Life 101 here: http://stream.realimpact.net/?file=realimpact/soundportraits/soundportraits/june _jones.rm that all has to be one line or the entire program is at http://www.soundportraits.org/on-air/ghetto_life_101/ Yousuf Karsh, portrait photographer. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/arts/newsid_2127000/2127298.stm Ward Kimble, in addition to being one of the true pioneers of character animation, was (with Ollie Johnson) one of the model train buffs at Disney whose passion for the hobby incited Walt to want to design a larger-scale railroad ride--which, in time, became Disneyland. site: www.mudcat.org. "Barbara Carns died this morning, 7/9/02, at 6:60 AM. She was 76, and still a grand singer of blues, sea songs, labor songs, and just good songs. She lived in Plainfield, VT, with roots in New Bedford and Cape Cod; many will associate her with the Eisteddfod and Tryworks Coffee House in MA. Others remember her appearances at Fox Hollow and Champlain Valley Festivals. All her children were with her at the end: Tom, Robin, Dan, Louisa and George, and at her request, friends in her Vermont community gathered in her hospital room for goodbyes and some singing. She sang too. She had a gentle, classy exit . . ." Richard (Dick) Korn, 79, Berkeley activist and therapist. Richard Korn was the founder of the Center for the Study of Criminal Justice in Berkeley, which participated in a number of penal system investigations, and was a therapist in New York and in the Bay Area, and was one of the inventor/developers of the therapy technique called "psychodrama", involving role-playing. Alan Lomax http://www.rounder.com/rounder/artists/lomax_alan/timeline.htm Lomax obit http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/19/obit.lomax.ap/index.html Rod Steiger

chuck hearn (spelling?)

Bruce Paltrow, director and family man. Survived by his daughter Gwenyth Paltrow and wife, Blythe Danner.

Paul Wellstone, Senator from Minnesota, in a small plane crash on the eve of his election. There is talk of Walter Mondale or his son stepping in to the race at the last minute. Shades of Mel Carnahan.

Karen Flaherty has passed. KAREN SHARKEY FLAHERTY Nov. 30, 1948 - Feb. 4, 2002 On February 4, 2002 Plenty lost a dear friend, sister, Board member, Treasurer and field worker when Karen Sharkey Flaherty passed away. Karen brought beauty, grace and courage into the Plenty circle. She was passionate with a gentle touch. She turned an unblinking eye on injustice in the world, especially the plight of women and children living in poverty. She lived for helping the victims of circumstances beyond their control, without hesitation, and often without consideration of her own health and well-being. Karen gave herself away. She had no enemies, only friends, by the thousands. Karen was a founding member of the Farm community where Plenty was born. She was a founding member of Plenty and served on the Board of Directors since 1988 and has been our Treasurer since 1989. She cofounded the Bhopal Justice Campaign to help the people of Bhopal, India obtain justice and compensation for their injuries as a result of a massive chemical accident at a Union Carbide plant that killed thousands of people in December 1984. Karen was deeply involved in Plenty�s projects at Pine Ridge and Round Valley Indian Reservations. She was strongly committed to Plenty�s Fair Trade programs and the Indigenous Women�s Economic Development project (IWED), traveling to Beijing to attend the International Women�s Conference in 1995 as a delegate of Plenty to help build awareness of Fair Trade. More recently, Karen was employed as a Project Administrator at the Florida Association of Voluntary Action for Caribbean Action (FAVACA) coordinating women�s development projects in the Caribbean and Central America and participated in joint Plenty/FAVACA projects in Dominica with the Indigenous Carib Peoples. The Mayor of Oakland, California, Jerry Brown, declared Sunday, Feb. 10, 2002 : Karen Flaherty Day See http://www.farmnetnews.com which is the Spring's tribute to Karen, this was going to be the Spring's gift to her while she was living and now it is her memorial.

Bob Hope He really loved it when people laughed. He lived for peoples laughter. And he died serenely last night at the ripe old age of 100. Thanks for the memories.

Charles Bronson http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=762&e=1&u=/nm/20030901/en_nm/people_bronson_dc

Tough buy movie star. Rough edged.

woody allen said hope was the greatest movie comedian of all time, and i agree... from '39 to '51 or '52, he made some of the funniest films ever made... i think it's kind of a shame that those films aren't seen more, and that his reputation as a comedian is not at least the equal to that of the patriotic persona everyone identifies with him... anyway, i'm a huge fan of his... gonna miss him...

johnny cash, john ritter.....

Art Carney, 85. Jackie Gleason's sidekick in the Honeymooners. Oscar Winner. "Norton"

Ronald Wilson Reagan http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?file=bo040614&vts=61420042141 http://www.ucomics.com/boondocks/2004/06/14/

Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji, known as Yogi Bhajan to hundreds of thousands of adherents worldwide, left his physical body at 9 pm MST on October 6th. His passing took place at his home in Espanola, New Mexico surrounded by family and friends. The cause of death was complications due to heart failure. He was 75 years old. An outstanding pioneer in many fields with a deep and compassionate insight into the human condition, he established permanent institutions, created spectacular events, and produced a prolific body of teachings. Memorial Services Photo Gallery Press Photos Press Release Meditations Discussion Forum Articles - Updated Videos In accordance with Sikh tradition, and his wishes, cremation will take place at Berardinelli's Family Funeral Services at 1:00 PM Saturday October 9th, 1399 Luisa Street Santa Fe, NM 87505. Click Here For more information, memorial services, events and ceremonies in his honor, or call (505) 367.1688. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to: "Kundalini Research Institute" for the Library of the Teachings of Yogi Bhajan, P.O. Box 249, Santa Cruz, NM 87567 USA If you would like to leave a message for Yogi Bhajan's family or staff please call 505-367-1661, or send email to ybmemorial@sikhdharma.org. NOTE: The information on this page is constantly being updated. Come back from time to time for the latest information and news. The first to publicly teach Kundalini Yoga, when he arrived in the West in 1968, he announced he had come to the West "to create teachers, not to gain students". A deeply devoted Sikh, his inspiration and example motivated thousands to embrace the Sikh way of life. Through his personal efforts, Sikh Dharma was legally incorporated and officially recognized as a religion in the USA in 1971. In 1971, in acknowledgement of his extraordinary impact of spreading the universal message of Sikhism, the president of the SGPC (governing body of Sikh Temples in India), Sant Charan Singh called him the Siri Singh Sahib, Chief Religious and Administrative Authority for the Western Hemisphere, and he was given the responsibility to create a Sikh Ministry in the West by the Akal Takhat, the Sikh seat of religious authority in Amritsar, India. He was honored with the title Bhai Sahib by the Akal Takhat in 1974. from http://www.sikhnet.com/yogibhajan

Superman. Christopher Reeve. Christopher Reeve, who became an international star in 1977's Superman and then proved to be a real-life superhero when a 1995 near-fatal riding accident turned him into a worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died of heart failure Sunday, his publicist said. He was 52. Reeve fell into a coma Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while at his Bedford, N.Y., home, publicist Wesley Combs told the Associated Press. His family was at h side. More

Johnny Carson. My mom used to watch Jack Paar. Then there was Johnny. For 30 years he told America its bedtime story. 1925-2005. He was smooth and effortless. He made it seem easy. He was 79. He took over from Jack Paar on Oct 1, 1962 when I was a Junior in High School and turned it over to Jay Leno on May 22, 1992 30 years later.

From Rick Herdon Thought you might be interested in this... (an article about the death of Kelly Freas) from 01/03/2005: http: //my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=4&cat=0800&id=2005010315030001321120 The text follows quoted: == LOS ANGELES (AP) - Kelly Freas, an influential illustrator who produced sleek, stirring images for science fiction and fantasy books and helped shape the image of Mad Magazine mascot Alfred E. Newman, has died. He was 82. Freas died in his sleep Sunday at his home in Los Angeles, said his wife of 16 years, Laura Brodian Freas, the host of a Los Angeles classical music program. The cause of death was old age, she said. ``He always wanted to be a science fiction illustrator, and the life of a science fiction illustrator led him to so much more,'' she told The Associated Press on Monday. ``Life with a Mad artist was never boring.''

Playwright Arthur Miller Dies at 89 By Associated Press Published February 11, 2005, 9:39 AM CST ROXBURY, Conn. -- Arthur Miller, the Pulitzer prize-winning playwright whose most famous fictional creation, Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman," came to symbolize the American Dream gone awry, has died, his assistant said Friday. He was 89. Miller died Thursday evening, said his assistant, Julia Bolus. She did not give a cause of death. His plays, with their strong emphasis on family, morality and personal responsibility, spoke to the growing fragmentation of American society. "A lot of my work goes to the center of where we belong -- if there is any root to life -- because nowadays the family is broken up, and people don't live in the same place for very long," Miller said in a 1988 interview. "Dislocation, maybe, is part of our uneasiness. It implants the feeling that nothing is really permanent." Miller's career was marked by early success. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for "Death of a Salesman" in 1949, when he was just 33 years old. His marriage to screen star Marilyn Monroe in 1956 further catapulted the playwright to fame, though that was publicity he said he never pursued. In a 1992 interview with a French newspaper, he called her "highly self-destructive" and said that during their marriage, "all my energy and attention were devoted to trying to help her solve her problems. Unfortunately, I didn't have much success."

Above pic. Honeymooners Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe with Sir Laurence Olivier and his wife, Vivien Leigh in Surrey, England, in July 1956. Mrs. Olivier was expecting a baby that December.

HST: THE END OF THE WAVE, 2/20/05 What useful thing can be said this bleak day, when most of what we believe in seems so out of step with our neighbors, when so many dark fears alluded to in the past only in parody verge on barely challenged reality; when even the irony so beloved among our kind, challenged by the flag and ribbon wavers as being poisonous to the New America, withers from disuse. It is wasting as surely as the commonality that was the undergirding of what we supposed was our connecting faith, revealed nakedly now for what it is, what it has probably always been but for our softness: a marriage of convenience, no longer convenient. The Doctor told us it was only a "tribal myth" to them, and we believed him, but we lulled to their purposes anyway, constitutionally unable to conceive of their real ends, now facing the monstrous possibilities proposed by this new century filled with doubt and contempt, not only for the yokels out there bought on the cheap by smirking Empire, but for the ideas we believed so invulnerable, and for the selves so willing to believe them. And now to find we face it without him, too. Hunter Thompson wasn't what he was made to be by his critics, caught up as they were in the weirdness that preoccupied their attentions, a weirdness that wasn't what they perceived it to be, either, but that's to be expected, and even moreso now, gone over as he has to "the guts of the living", there to be modified, misunderstood, pigeon-holed and quantified by the foriegn codes of conscience that are the Aaron Browns of this tawdry mess of a planet he left behind. They were and are incapable of understanding what he was, a true-believing romantic of the old order, befitting a man who may have been among the last of his country's real patriots. What else can a genuine believer do, what protection does he have in the face of his enemy, but his dissent from their terms, from their mendacity, from the sham of their society? He fought them with his printed words, with his bombast and absurdism, with his life as object lesson lived for all we poor slobs who could only read about it, could only taste a little o that ignis fatuus that drove his high-flying prose, that elusive hunt for the American Dream; we tilted for it with him, unrelentingly, certain that it waited. Hunter Thompson called out the frauds and the fakers, the fat, sleek hypocrites the dream would protect us from, passed the promise on to those of us who might love it as he did, as Scott Fitzgerald did, as Thomas Wolfe, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg did, all the doe-eyed dreamers of the last century and their sentimental, joyful ideas about America- Hunter believed it, and sold it to us by virtue of his jeering, frantic poetry, with all it's secret meanings, ellipses, detours and misdirections, his hysterical humor- always with the hidden, earnest light at it's center, the nearly child-like faith in the trip, the experience, the "orgiastic future" expressed in that ultimate justice, that vindication waiting for all of us, collectively, if only we would beat the whore-faced shit-eyed bastards together, once and for all... God, I loved him. I will miss him, as all of us who got it will miss him, our General in search for mythic dreams, our Doctor of hope, laughter, and commiseration; our fellow fallen believer. May the God who made him gather him to the place he dreamed on, where "the pillars of this earth are founded". And may the wind truly rise, the river really flow. Blasting caps would probably be nice, too.

In the 1970s, Hunter Thompson inspired a legion of young journalists to believe that the best way to cover a story was to get tanked to the gills on drugs and alcohol, present oneself in a state of near-psychotic meltdown at the scene of whatever one was covering, and record the affronted and sometimes violent reactions of the people one encountered. Concepts like "facts" and "objectivity" were to be regarded as quaint, if not entirely notional. The author became the story. This was "gonzo journalism." What Thompson himself never felt the need to point out � although other practitioners of what at the time was called the New Journalism, like Tom Wolfe, were quick to note it � was that his gonzo style rested on a foundation of solid journalistic experience. (Although he hadn't actually graduated from high school, Hunter had studied journalism at Columbia University, and he later worked for such publications as Time and the New York Herald Tribune.) Getting loaded didn't make you a journalist; nor did it make you a talented writer (another key requirement of the style). Getting loaded, in the case of most of his many young admirers, simply made them loaded � a time-honored way of avoiding the annoying work of actually sitting down to write the story. Hunter had immersed himself in the California biker culture to write a 1967 book called "Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs." (Still a good read today.) But his later gonzo style only began to emerge in a 1970 article for Scanlan's Monthly called "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved." Returning to his home town of Louisville to cover the annual horse race, Thompson had been teamed for the first time with Ralph Steadman, an English illustrator with a spattery, apocalyptic style. "Neither of us had brought any strange illegal drugs," Thompson wrote, "so we would have to get by on booze." MTV News correspondent Gideon Yago also weighs in on Hunter S. Thompson and his legacy ... Hunter was subsequently assigned by Sports Illustrated to go to Las Vegas and cover something called the Mint 400 motorcycle race. He took along an associate, Oscar Zeta Acosta, a 250-pound Chicano legal-aid lawyer. They rented a car for the trip, and used Hunter's expense money from the magazine to stock its trunk with, as he later wrote, "two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers ... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls." more at http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1497300/20050222/index.jhtml?headlines=true

Jeff Raskin, inventor of the Mac http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jef_Raskin Raskin was born in New York City. He received degrees in mathematics (B.S. 1964) and philosophy (B.A. 1965) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He earned a master's degree in computer science at Pennsylvania State University in 1967. His first computer program, a music program, was part of his master's thesis. Raskin later enrolled in a graduate music program at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), but stopped to teach art, photography and computer science there, working as an assistant professor from 1970 until 1974. Raskin joined Apple in January 1978 as the company's 31st employee. For some time he was director of Publications and New Product Review, but also worked on packaging and other issues. Through this time he continually wrote memos about a much simpler-to-use computer, and suggested Apple start such a project. He later hired his former student Bill Atkinson from UCSD to work at Apple, and began the Macintosh project in 1979. The machine he envisioned was much different than the Macintosh that was eventually released, and had much more in common with PDA's than modern GUI-based machines. The machine was similar in power to the Apple II and included a small 9-inch black-and-white character display built into a small case with a floppy disk. A number of basic applications were built into the machine, selectable by pressing function keys. The machine also included logic that would understand user intentions and switch programs on the fly. For instance, if the user simply started typing it would switch into editor mode, and if they typed numbers it would switch to calculator mode. In many cases these switches would be largely invisible to the user. In 1981 Steve Jobs, who had supported the Macintosh project but was more deeply involved in shaping the direction for the Apple Lisa, was asked to stop interfering in the Lisa project. He directed his attention to Raskin's Macintosh project, intending to marry the Xerox PARC-inspired GUI-based Lisa design to Raskin's appliance computing, "computers-by-the-millions" concept. Raskin takes credit for introducing Jobs and other Apple employees to the PARC concepts, but it appears this is not really the case. Raskin also claims to have had continued direct input into the eventual Mac design, including the decision to use a one-button mouse as part of the Apple interface, a departure from the Xerox PARC standard of a three-button mouse. Larry Tesler, among others kurac, debates this claim. Raskin later stated that were he to redesign the interface he would use a two button mouse. Raskin left Apple in 1982 and formed Information Appliance, through which he implemented his original concepts for the Macintosh. The first product was a firmware card for the Apple II, called the SWYFT card, which was a keyboard-driven integrated application suite. Information Appliance later shipped the Swyft as a stand-alone laptop computer. Raskin licensed this design to Canon, who shipped a similar product as the Canon Cat. Released in 1987, the unit had an innovative interface which attracted much interest but it did not become a commercial success. Raskin claimed that its failure was due in some part to Steve Jobs, who successfully pitched Canon on the NeXT Computer at about the same time. Raskin also authored a text, The Humane Interface, in which he developed his ideas about human-computer interfaces. At the beginning of the new millennium, Raskin undertook the building of The Humane Environment (THE). THE is a system incarnating his concepts of the humane interface, by using open source elements within his rendition of a ZUI or Zooming User Interface. While best-known as a computer scientist, Raskin also had other interests. He conducted the San Francisco Chamber Opera Society and played three instruments. His artwork was displayed at New York's Museum of Modern Art. He received a patent for airplane wing construction. He was said to be an accomplished archer, target shooter and an occasional race car driver. Jef Raskin was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2004 and died in Pacifica, California on February 26, 2005, at age 61.

Jeff Raskin

http://www.obitcentral.com/ A central clearing house for obituaries on the web.

March 03, 2005 Samuel Alderson Samuel W. Alderson was no dummy. But he designed one that saved countless lives. Born in Cleveland and raised in Southern California, Alderson graduated from high school at 15 and attended four colleges: Reed College, the California Institute of Technology, the University of California Berkeley, and Columbia University. His education was interrupted several times during the Depression when he would return home to help out in his father's sheet metal shop. During World War II, Alderson improved missile guidance systems for the U.S. military and developed a special coating that helped enhance vision on submarine periscopes. He then formed Alderson Research Labs, a company that designed an anthropomorphic test device later known as the crash test dummy. Weighing approximately the same as humans, these mechanical surrogates were used by the military and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to test ejection seats, parachutes and exposure to radiation. The first crash test dummies for the automobile industry were cadavers. Since the bodies deteriorated quickly during repeat trials and had no uniformity in size or shape, automakers began seeking a new way to test its safety features. Alderson built the first automobile test dummy in 1960, but few took notice until five years later when former presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader published the book, "Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile." In 1966, the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act passed, which authorized the government to set and regulate safety standards for motor vehicles and highways. Alderson's dummy, which was built specifically for automotive testing, resembled an average-sized adult man. It had a nearly featureless face, a steel rib cage, articulated joints and a flexible neck and lumbar spine. Instruments designed to collect data during crashes were implanted inside the dummy's head, chest and thighs. In 1973, Alderson formed Humanoid Systems, another company that designed and produced test dummies. Humanoid Systems and Alderson Research Labs competed against each other until 1990, when they merged to form First Technology Safety Systems. Today, Alderson's original dummy has been improved and expanded into a high-tech family that includes women, children and infants. Alderson died on Feb. 11 from complications of myelofibrosis and pneumonia. He was 90. from http://www.blogofdeath.com/

Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson, the renegade writer who stretched the boundaries of journalism, committed suicide on Feb. 20 at the age of 67. He died at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colo., of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Born in Louisville, Ky., Thompson finished high school, but missed the graduation ceremony because he was in jail serving a 60-day sentence for robbery. When he got out, Thompson enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and discovered a passion for journalism. He edited the sports section at an Air Force newspaper in Florida, then worked as a correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and the National Observer. In the 1970s, Thompson helped pioneer the "New Journalism" movement. Utilizing first person narrative, he discussed current events and politics in a more novelistic and opinionated manner. While writing for Rolling Stone magazine, the gonzo journalist once covered a district attorneys' anti-drug conference after taking copious amounts of psychedelic drugs. The unapologetic and self-destructive writer never graduated from college, yet he bestowed on himself the title of "the good doctor." His original voice filled nearly a dozen books, including "Hell's Angels," "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72" and "Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century." Thompson was best known for "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream," the 1972 book that turned him into a counterculture icon. His latest book, "Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness," was published in 2004. Thompson's influence reached from bookstores to newsstands to Hollywood. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau modeled the balding, pot-smoking character of Uncle Duke in the "Doonesbury" comic strip after Thompson, a move that angered the journalist. At one point, Thompson vowed to set Trudeau on fire, if they ever met. Bill Murray portrayed him in the 1980 film "Where the Buffalo Roam," and Johnny Depp did so in the 1998 film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." A film adaptation of "The Rum Diary," Thompson's only published work of intentional fiction, is currently in production. Thompson became more reclusive in recent years, spending most of his time shooting firearms in his backyard. In 2000, he accidentally shot his assistant, Deborah Fuller, while chasing a bear off his property. Thompson also wrote the popular column, Hey Rube, for ESPN.com. In his most recent column ("Fore!"), he called Murray to discuss a new extreme sport: shooting golf balls like skeet. � Listen to a Tribute From NPR at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4507067 � Complete Coverage From The New York Times at http://nytimes.com/indexes/2005/02/21/books/authors/index.html

Pope John Paul II, April 2.

Yes, I was just going to say. He was a good Pope. And he went quickly without tying up everyone's energy for years like that other news story that he pushed off the front pages.

Peter Jennings, ABC News Anchor. He died of lung cancer, maybe this will turn some folks off to smoking.

oh, that just broke my heart. now i have trouble watching world news tonight, seriously. he was the reason why i chose that news show over the others.

CJ William Rehnquist, according to CNN.

you know he was at work the day before (i think it was the day before)? the dedication. gonna take a lot to fill those shoes.

Bernard Epp. My wife's father died this afternoon. He was over 90 years old. In Abottsford, British Columbia, Canada.

as a god self-slain on it's own strange altar: death lies dead (swinburne) (or very nearly, it appears)